Resources
This page describes the resources background, in the current campaign. The Background has been modified, mostly in the precise benefits of the various levels. The benefits of the levels 1-5 are modified from "Vampire the Masquerade V20" and the higher levels are modified from "Elysium: the Elder Ways" This article is update to the year of our Lord 1800 Resources The Resources background represents a measure of your character's personal wealth. Mostly through various properties, be they land, workforce, companies, ships. Nearly anything that provides a steady income and is worth money, can provide the Resources background. Be aware that by far the greater amount of most people's Resources are bound up in assests that are not easily transportable, nor easily liquidated. Resource ratings assume that your character has to do some amount of work to maintain his living, dependent on where the income comes from. If for example your character runs a farm, he is assumed to have to spend at least some time managing said farm. That is, to maintain most levels of Resources, a considerable amount of time has to be put into maintaining them. It is not generally possible to leave ones business for extended periods of time without putting them at risk. The levels 1-5 of resources, represent the kind of wealth that is accessible to people (and kindred) of most social strata, from those who own almost nothing, to those who are very wealthy. These levels however are not adequate to describe the wealth of those who possess truly vast amounts of Resources. Mostly these levels are beyond the reach of individuals, being the purview, of vast companies, and nations. But when one can live for centuries and bind others in bonds of absolute love and loyalty, through blood, things look a little different. As such Elder Kindred, and even the occasional super rich mortal can reach these upper echelons of wealth. At level 6 and beyond it is possible to gain influence in one or more major world economies. A character with this amount of Resources at his disposal can attempt to change to direction of world commerce, in the area where he has his economic influence. To do so, roll Manipulation+Resources. The difficulty is determined by the storyteller, depending on the extent of the desired change, tenacity and skill of your opponents, etc. A botch indicates the character has put his influence over that section of the economy at risk, either through corporate takeovers, the collapse of the industry, or any other major disaster. Resources rating may drop accordingly. Note: in terms of value, relative to the standard system of V20 this background has actually recieved a slight nerf. 0 dots: Poor. You do have an income but it is only just enough to support a single room in a city, or a small cottage outside of one. Your lifestyle is not exactly luxurious. your poverty is immediately obvious to most all around you, as you do not have access to clothing of any remarkable quality, nor do you have access to sanitation very frequently. #'Decent'. You have the money to pay for a tolerable lifestyle, maybe you can even rent a small 2-room apartment, or own a small house, Though it is stille highly likely to be Rustic, and not particularly comfortable. alternatively you can live a little down and be able to save up a little bit of money. You can afford trappings that are of a decent quality, but not particularly valuable. For example, any jewelery you own is most likely to be made from glass beads, copper/bronze, polished wood, and the like. You almost never have any ready cash, as all of your available income goes towards maintaing your current lifestyle, e.g paying rent, fixing clothes, etc. #'Moderate'. You are able to support a lifestyle where you can rent and maintain a 2-room-apartment, save up a little money, and even own a sunday suit, or some other small luxury. You have access to some small amounts of money, and every once in a while you can even go travelling. you can travel with an effective Resource rating of 1, as long as you do so no more than 1-2 weeks every year. #'Comfortable'. You are the economical equivalent of a member of the Bourgeois class, or a free peasant with some land to your name, alternatively an impoverished noble. You are likely to own your own home, perhaps even with an extra room for a servant. you are capable of supporting one servant apart from yourself. You can draw upon a small amount of credit in your local area, without submitting to the worst of the usurer's fees. You are quite likely to have at least some amount of jewelry, and fancy clothes. You can travel while enjoying the "luxuries" of a 1 dot subsistence, practically indefinitely (within a decade or so, though doing so is likely to hurt your finances due to neglect), alternatively you can travel for up to 2 weeks every year with the benefits of a dot 2 existence. #'Rich'. You are likely to be of the mid to lesser nobility or of the merchant class. You are able to support an appartment, or a medium-sized homestead. your character has the money, if not the fashion sense to dress in style and wear jewelry, as well as weapons. You most likely own a horse, and can afford to go around by carriage. It is highly unlikely that you have to perform any sort of hard labor by yourself, instead paying servant to go around such unpleasant business as cleaning the house, doing laundry and so forth. You have access to decent amounts of cash, with quite short notice, though it is more likely to come from a creditor (at decent interest rates, naturally) than your personal stash. You are able to turn away from whatever it is you get your money from, for up to a year and still enjoy a 3 dot subsistence, or go travelling for up to a decade on a 2 dot subsistence. At this level of wealth you have the money to begin collecting symbols of wealth and prestige, like a library, a coin or stamp collection, art, etc. #'Very Rich'. You are likely to be of the high nobility or the wealthy merchant class.You most definitely own a large property, or perhaps several smaller ones. Whatever way you distribute your property there is quite a lot to distribute, you can live in style, wearing the finest clothes, good quality weapons and jewels, ride fine horses, and maintain a staff of servants that you actually need a steward to manage them. You need only spend comparatively little time managing your business as it is so large as to support itself for a significant amount of time, and besides you hire people to do the worst of the managing. It is quite likely that plenty of people depend on you, one way or another, for their own subsistence, be they farmers working your land, people living in appartments you own, etc. You can easily collect symbols of status and prestige, such as art, antiquities, weapons, horses, rare books, occult paraphernalia, etc. You can travel for up to 5 years and still maintian 4 dots worth of resources, or up to 25 years on 3 dots of resources. #'Extremely Rich'. This is the kind of wealth that is difficult for individuals to attain, being mostly the domain of the traditional upper class, High nobles, and merchants (who have invariably at this point become nobles, either through marriage, special privilige, or sheer acquisition). Mostly the people at this level of wealth, don't have to bother acquiring trappings, unless they are of the extremely extravagant sort; massive gold-and-diamond jewelry, ancient damascene blades, proscibed books from the dark ages, etc. A character at this level of wealth is assumed to be able to support and maintain at least one massive Mansion, Homestead, Chateau or perhaps even a Castle, complete with a massive staff of servants. A character so wealthy can afford to spend rather large periods of time away from his business and still maintain a 5 dot subsistence. But beware such a valuable undertaking is more than likely to attract jealous stares from rivals and people of questionable morale and fiscal character. It is possible at this level to come up with quite large sums of cash at short notice but it is still quite likely to take some time. At this level of wealth you choose a single major world market where your character is a power player. This means that your character is able to influence this market practically worldwide. Examples include; manufactured goods of a particular type (e.g: cottons, tools), any raw material such as silver, sugar, timber, or even a mode of transportation such as shipping. Alternatively it is possible to choose a smaller field and then be the dominant power in this field, such as: rare books, swords or nails. This can even be a geographical area; such as Massachusets, Wales or Champagne. In the case of geographical areas, it means that you character is into just about every industry and business in that area, as well as owning large swathes of land there. #'Rich Beyond Imagining'. At this level you can maintain up 3 large estates, appartments, chateau's... whatever. But at this level of wealth, these are mostly icing on the cake, as your wealth is so immense as to be impossible to spend on luxuries. you can acquire just about anything that can be bought for money. You can choose to either expand your world market dominion of a truly vast world market, to the point where you are among only 1 or 2 equals in that market; possible choices are: steel, shipping or foodstuffs. Even laying your character dirty hands on a nations finances are not beyond reach, depending on the nation of course. (A lot more dots would be needed to control the Finances of the USA in modern days, than say Denmark). you can choose instead to have economic influence in 2 major world trades, adding an additional influence to the one acquired at dot 6. You are quite likely for example to be a major employer in the country where your Resources are based. Category:Background Category:Rules